Who still loses weight by eating back the calories they burned off from exercise?
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I eat them all as I'm in maintenance. When I was losing I ate 50-75% of them.0
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WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »A person who is nervous or worrying about eating back calories can be assured that if they're anything above "sedentary, but have it set on "sedentary"....they can safely eat back whatever extra calories they've earned from exercise and still lose weight. Some people diet, but don't exercise and their non-exercise level (such as their jobs or chores or whatever) vary greatly day to day. People who have exactly the same activity level at work, school, and home everyday wouldn't be confused about how many calories to eat back anyway.
And I'm well aware of Fitbit's negative calorie adjustments. Those are frequently wrong, too. I can't wear my fitbit when I swim laps or even during heavy punching/kicking sessions. Fitbit often cannot properly log certain workouts or need manual entry (which is all guessing). Even Fitbit lists the many sport's and activities that aren't accurate. Heart rate isn't very accurate and that's all they use to calculate. It doesn't know your workload vs muscle mass to figure out how hard you're working.
Even worse....people who have naturally very low or very high heartrates get bizarre resting readings and changing the Exercise Zones only helps during "moderate to heavy" access. My fitbit tells me that on days I don't exercise, I can only eat a total of 650 calories daily. So no. Trusting the negative adjustments is much more complicated than what I initially suggested.
Which is what virtually every website and forum suggest people do, btw. Set both fitbit and mfp to "sedentary" AND allow negative adjustments and then you're sure you're always safe to eat back 100% of calories and still lose your set lbs goal.
I average 15,000 steps/day and setting myself as Sedentary would not be an accurate representation of my activity, even though I have a desk job. If I chose that incorrect setting, MFP would underestimate my calorie needs and the adjustments I see from FitBit would be enormous.
People who get more than 7,000 steps/day are not Sedentary.
People who suggest that FitBit gives them too many calories usually don't understand how the system works and/or they have underestimated their baseline calories to begin with and/or they are striving for a goal rate of loss that is too aggressive for the amount they have to lose.
If a person doesn't exercise and they don't have an active job or lifestyle they should be set at Sedentary. That doesn't mean that everyone should. As @AnnPT77 pointed out, selecting an appropriate activity level combined with enabling negative calorie adjustments should provide reliable numbers that can be trusted when deciding how many calories to eat back.
To the OP: when I started MFP I didn't have a FitBit. I entered my exercise (walking) and ate back the calories. I lost weight doing so. About 6 months in, I got a FitBit and realized I was more active than I thought. I got good advice on here to up my activity level to represent the day to day movement I had, resulting in a higher baseline of cals but smaller exercise adjustments. I ate those back and continued to lose at an appropriate rate for how much I had to lose. I'm now 3 years into maintenance, I still eat back the calories, and I've been maintaining quite easily doing so. And I'm a 5'2 female over forty with a TDEE of 2200 cals. So that's a lot to trust.5 -
Yes, I usually eat 50% on the day and bank 50% for my weekends
Basically I eat the lot. 
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I do. The only way I'd be able to get through a workout is if I ate those calories.1
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I lose while eating most of mine back.
Regardless, you need to eat after working out. Food is fuel. Being a diabetic I can use my glucose meter to see exactly what happens to my body when I work out - I use all my fuel! If you're healthy and not on meds, your body will correct low blood sugar in a little bit, but it doesn't make you feel great.
If you eat a protein based snack with some carbs immediately after working out, you will be more likely to hold onto muscle mass and lose fat, and you will top off your blood sugar and replenish your glycogen stores. One study found a glass of milk worked well. Doesn't have to be much - a piece of fruit and some Greek yogurt is my usual fix.2 -
There's some really reassuring stuff in this conversation. I'm always scared to eat back my exercise calories, but I might start doing that a bit at a time. Thanks everyone! :-)3
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rheddmobile wrote: »I lose while eating most of mine back.
Regardless, you need to eat after working out. Food is fuel. Being a diabetic I can use my glucose meter to see exactly what happens to my body when I work out - I use all my fuel! If you're healthy and not on meds, your body will correct low blood sugar in a little bit, but it doesn't make you feel great.
If you eat a protein based snack with some carbs immediately after working out, you will be more likely to hold onto muscle mass and lose fat, and you will top off your blood sugar and replenish your glycogen stores. One study found a glass of milk worked well. Doesn't have to be much - a piece of fruit and some Greek yogurt is my usual fix.
Thank you for this. I'm non- diabetic hypoglycemic and this is the advice I was given. I usually have a cheese stick and fruit or PB on crackers.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »A person who is nervous or worrying about eating back calories can be assured that if they're anything above "sedentary, but have it set on "sedentary"....they can safely eat back whatever extra calories they've earned from exercise and still lose weight. Some people diet, but don't exercise and their non-exercise level (such as their jobs or chores or whatever) vary greatly day to day. People who have exactly the same activity level at work, school, and home everyday wouldn't be confused about how many calories to eat back anyway.
And I'm well aware of Fitbit's negative calorie adjustments. Those are frequently wrong, too. I can't wear my fitbit when I swim laps or even during heavy punching/kicking sessions. Fitbit often cannot properly log certain workouts or need manual entry (which is all guessing). Even Fitbit lists the many sport's and activities that aren't accurate. Heart rate isn't very accurate and that's all they use to calculate. It doesn't know your workload vs muscle mass to figure out how hard you're working.
Even worse....people who have naturally very low or very high heartrates get bizarre resting readings and changing the Exercise Zones only helps during "moderate to heavy" access. My fitbit tells me that on days I don't exercise, I can only eat a total of 650 calories daily. So no. Trusting the negative adjustments is much more complicated than what I initially suggested.
Which is what virtually every website and forum suggest people do, btw. Set both fitbit and mfp to "sedentary" AND allow negative adjustments and then you're sure you're always safe to eat back 100% of calories and still lose your set lbs goal.
I average 15,000 steps/day and setting myself as Sedentary would not be an accurate representation of my activity, even though I have a desk job. If I chose that incorrect setting, MFP would underestimate my calorie needs and the adjustments I see from FitBit would be enormous.
People who get more than 7,000 steps/day are not Sedentary.
People who suggest that FitBit gives them too many calories usually don't understand how the system works and/or they have underestimated their baseline calories to begin with and/or they are striving for a goal rate of loss that is too aggressive for the amount they have to lose.
If a person doesn't exercise and they don't have an active job or lifestyle they should be set at Sedentary. That doesn't mean that everyone should. As @AnnPT77 pointed out, selecting an appropriate activity level combined with enabling negative calorie adjustments should provide reliable numbers that can be trusted when deciding how many calories to eat back.
To the OP: when I started MFP I didn't have a FitBit. I entered my exercise (walking) and ate back the calories. I lost weight doing so. About 6 months in, I got a FitBit and realized I was more active than I thought. I got good advice on here to up my activity level to represent the day to day movement I had, resulting in a higher baseline of cals but smaller exercise adjustments. I ate those back and continued to lose at an appropriate rate for how much I had to lose. I'm now 3 years into maintenance, I still eat back the calories, and I've been maintaining quite easily doing so. And I'm a 5'2 female over forty with a TDEE of 2200 cals. So that's a lot to trust.
Minor point, but credit where due: I believe it was @SusanMFindlay who said those very sensible things about activity level and Fitbit settings.
(I pretty much just opined that people should base decisions on their actual weight loss rate, rather than fussing about the definitions of activity settings and accuracy of exercise estimates. Too many people are worrying about estimates when they could be using actual personal data.)3 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »A person who is nervous or worrying about eating back calories can be assured that if they're anything above "sedentary, but have it set on "sedentary"....they can safely eat back whatever extra calories they've earned from exercise and still lose weight. Some people diet, but don't exercise and their non-exercise level (such as their jobs or chores or whatever) vary greatly day to day. People who have exactly the same activity level at work, school, and home everyday wouldn't be confused about how many calories to eat back anyway.
And I'm well aware of Fitbit's negative calorie adjustments. Those are frequently wrong, too. I can't wear my fitbit when I swim laps or even during heavy punching/kicking sessions. Fitbit often cannot properly log certain workouts or need manual entry (which is all guessing). Even Fitbit lists the many sport's and activities that aren't accurate. Heart rate isn't very accurate and that's all they use to calculate. It doesn't know your workload vs muscle mass to figure out how hard you're working.
Even worse....people who have naturally very low or very high heartrates get bizarre resting readings and changing the Exercise Zones only helps during "moderate to heavy" access. My fitbit tells me that on days I don't exercise, I can only eat a total of 650 calories daily. So no. Trusting the negative adjustments is much more complicated than what I initially suggested.
Which is what virtually every website and forum suggest people do, btw. Set both fitbit and mfp to "sedentary" AND allow negative adjustments and then you're sure you're always safe to eat back 100% of calories and still lose your set lbs goal.
I average 15,000 steps/day and setting myself as Sedentary would not be an accurate representation of my activity, even though I have a desk job. If I chose that incorrect setting, MFP would underestimate my calorie needs and the adjustments I see from FitBit would be enormous.
People who get more than 7,000 steps/day are not Sedentary.
People who suggest that FitBit gives them too many calories usually don't understand how the system works and/or they have underestimated their baseline calories to begin with and/or they are striving for a goal rate of loss that is too aggressive for the amount they have to lose.
If a person doesn't exercise and they don't have an active job or lifestyle they should be set at Sedentary. That doesn't mean that everyone should. As @AnnPT77 pointed out, selecting an appropriate activity level combined with enabling negative calorie adjustments should provide reliable numbers that can be trusted when deciding how many calories to eat back.
To the OP: when I started MFP I didn't have a FitBit. I entered my exercise (walking) and ate back the calories. I lost weight doing so. About 6 months in, I got a FitBit and realized I was more active than I thought. I got good advice on here to up my activity level to represent the day to day movement I had, resulting in a higher baseline of cals but smaller exercise adjustments. I ate those back and continued to lose at an appropriate rate for how much I had to lose. I'm now 3 years into maintenance, I still eat back the calories, and I've been maintaining quite easily doing so. And I'm a 5'2 female over forty with a TDEE of 2200 cals. So that's a lot to trust.
Minor point, but credit where due: I believe it was @SusanMFindlay who said those very sensible things about activity level and Fitbit settings.
(I pretty much just opined that people should base decisions on their actual weight loss rate, rather than fussing about the definitions of activity settings and accuracy of exercise estimates. Too many people are worrying about estimates when they could be using actual personal data.)
Ahh very true - sorry @SusanMFindlay! That's what I get for not double checking all the great posts above mine!2 -
WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »And I added a shortcut to my phone to this chart that has literally every possible activity and calories burned based on weight and intensity. I use it to compare to MFP, Fitbit, and Samsung Health awarded calories to help adjust the averages. It's really comprehensive as a quick reference guide.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/calories-burned-during-exercise/
Wow, that's, um, generous. At least for cross country skiing and for cycling, those are just nonsense high.0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »And I added a shortcut to my phone to this chart that has literally every possible activity and calories burned based on weight and intensity. I use it to compare to MFP, Fitbit, and Samsung Health awarded calories to help adjust the averages. It's really comprehensive as a quick reference guide.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/calories-burned-during-exercise/
Wow, that's, um, generous. At least for cross country skiing and for cycling, those are just nonsense high.
That's why you average it. S Health gives me really high burns and mfp goes either way. I think it's a good list because it has pretty much every activity possible (especially specific chores and such) with weight ranges (which is useful). Now I know that maybe instead of going back to machining, I should chop wood to get buff fast.0 -
I've always eaten almost all of my exercise calories. Works for me!1
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I almost never eat mine back, but that's because I'm still gathering data. I need more time to examine my weightloss trend and see what rate I'm losing at. Then I'll take a look at my info and dial it in. May was just way too weird to base any decisions off of. I'm going to look at May along with June and then maybe July and THEN see what I can be eating back. I have a lot to lose so I figure I can just take a deep breath and take the time to try to get it right for long term success.1
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MsHarryWinston wrote: »I almost never eat mine back, but that's because I'm still gathering data. I need more time to examine my weightloss trend and see what rate I'm losing at. Then I'll take a look at my info and dial it in. May was just way too weird to base any decisions off of. I'm going to look at May along with June and then maybe July and THEN see what I can be eating back. I have a lot to lose so I figure I can just take a deep breath and take the time to try to get it right for long term success.
Your error may vary over time.
Here is an interesting tidbit. When counting my "calories in" using the MFP total "calories in" number, my Fitbit TDEE error these past 2 years ranged from 3.5% to ~5.75%. When I calculated my *calories in" by multiplying out the actual macros the error reduced to between 1.85% and 3.95% at various points of time.
That would be (based on trending weight and 1lb = 3500 Cal) between 58 and 121 Cal of innacuracy. Over 2 years... while eating between 2847Cal and 2942 Cal... and either actually losing at -233 Cal a day for the one year, or "gaining" at +1 Cal a day for the next year (11months).
Just saying that assuming a maximum ~10% error off the batt seems more prudent than assuming a 100% one...2
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